Chapter 40 "Let's break up."
Ye Jinyan gritted his teeth and finally, step by step, laboriously carried the heavy backpack of supplies to the center of the camp.
As soon as the items hit the ground, he immediately turned his back, pretending to straighten his cuffs, but actually secretly moving his aching and trembling arms.
Meng Xian immediately grabbed a towel and a bottle of water and rushed over to him, gently wiping the sweat from his cheeks and neck. Her voice was full of concern: "You must be exhausted. Sit down and rest, have some water."
Ye Jinyan took her hand and gave her a doting smile: "It's okay, this little bit of physical work is nothing for you."
He took the water bottle, tilted his head back and drank a few sips, while Meng Xian considerately straightened his slightly disheveled shirt collar.
The two stood very close, their eyes meeting and exchanging tender glances, clearly displaying a deep and affectionate relationship.
[Sweat so hard! This scene is so sweet! The handsome man and beautiful woman are such a perfect match!]
The rain has stopped, the sky is clear, and I feel like I'm back to normal. Even though the whole world has betrayed Xianxian, Ye Shao still stands firmly behind her.
[The guy I've been pursuing is being all lovey-dovey with his girlfriend right in front of me. I'm curious to know how Gu Mingyan will react.]
After seeing the discussion in the comments, the camera very considerately switched to Gu Mingyan.
Not far away on the riverbank, Gu Mingyan and her brother Gu Xubai were squatting in front of a clump of plants, arguing heatedly.
"Gu Xubai, are your eyes just decorations on your face?" Gu Mingyan pointed at the clump of plants and mocked rudely, "You trampled on the wheat seedlings planted by the villagers. Can't you watch where you're going?"
Gu Xubai sneered upon hearing this: "I think it's your eyes that are faulty. The edges of this leaf have fine serrations, and the midrib is obvious; they are clearly awns. Wheat leaves don't have such obvious serrations."
"Stop talking to me about those bookish facts! Look at how these leaves are growing, it's clearly wheat! How can the awns grow in such a neat clump?"
“The wetlands along the river are a suitable habitat for Miscanthus sinensis, so it’s normal for them to grow in clusters. Look at the fibers at the break,” Gu Xubai picked up a broken stem to show, “They’re completely different from the easily broken wheat stems.”
"I said it's wheat, so it's wheat!" Gu Mingyan was a little annoyed.
“Objective facts do not change according to your subjective judgment; that’s the truth,” Gu Xubai said calmly.
The two argued back and forth, neither willing to back down, their eyes seemingly sparking with electricity as they locked gazes.
[Hahaha, the style suddenly changed!]
[Jealousy is out of the question, my sister Yan's attention is completely controlled by her competitive spirit, hahaha.]
[It's reasonable to suspect that Gu Mingyan called her brother over to settle a personal score.]
No wonder she had such a sly smile when she shouted for Gu Xubai to help her from outside the arena.
So, is that clump of plant in front of them wheat or awns?
Just as the two were arguing and neither could convince the other, they suddenly turned their heads at the same time and looked at Yun Qingqing, who was listening intently with her chin resting on her hand.
Gu Mingyan and Gu Xubai: "Qingqing/Yun Qingqing, tell me! Is this wheat or awn?!"
Yun, who was suddenly called out, blinked gently, looked at Gu Mingyan with a serious expression, and then at Gu Xubai with a blank expression but a determined look in his eyes.
She slowly reached out, picked up a leaf and examined it carefully. Then she brushed away some soil, revealing a grayish-white, slightly thick root underneath.
Then, she raised her face with a strange expression: "Hmm... what you all say makes a lot of sense, but I'm a reed."
Gu Mingyan: "???"
Gu Xubai: "..."
A river breeze blew by, and the cluster of green leaves swayed gently in the wind, as if silently mocking.
[Hahahaha, I'm laughing so hard my head will fall off!!! The siblings were arguing so fiercely, but it all came to nothing.]
A flurry of analysis, but the results are utterly incompetent.
[Reed: Thank you, Ms. Qingqing, for clearing my name.]
Having witnessed the entire process, Ji Sihan, in a spirit of seeking truth and being pragmatic, opened an image recognition software and scanned the clump of plants.
The scan results quickly appeared, and it was indeed reeds.
He gave Yun a thumbs up: "Not bad, Yun! You recognized the legendary reed at a glance!"
Gu Mingyan's cheeks were still burning from making a fool of herself, but upon hearing Ji Sihan's praise, she immediately straightened her back and raised her chin high: "Do you even need to tell me? Our Qingqing is a top student."
Yun Qingqing: "..."
Are you all serious, young masters and ladies? Aren't reeds everywhere along riverbanks in the countryside? What's so hard about recognizing them?
All eyes were on Yun Qingqing and her two companions, and no one paid any attention to Ye Jinyan, who had just finished showing off his affection.
His expression darkened with displeasure as he recalled how Meng Xian had repeatedly complained to him, saying that Yun Qingqing always clung to Gu Mingyan, deliberately excluding and ignoring her.
With both old and new grudges piled up, Ye Jinyan's heart was instantly filled with rage.
He had previously investigated Yun Qingqing's background. Her parents were just servants in the Fan family, and the family was extremely patriarchal. She was forced to work to make a living before finishing high school.
What kind of academic genius is this?
Ye Jinyan was convinced that all of Gu Mingyan's actions just now were intentional.
The other party deliberately argued with Gu Xubai and ostentatiously praised Yun Qingqing, simply to pretend that they didn't care at all about the intimacy between him and Meng Xian.
To put it bluntly, it's just bluffing.
Ye Jinyan sneered and walked over with the intention of undermining her: "I'm suddenly a little curious. Miss Yun is so smart and knowledgeable, I wonder which prestigious university you attended?"
Upon hearing the question, Gu Mingyan's brows furrowed instantly, and she looked at Ye Jinyan with displeasure.
Ye Jinyan waited patiently.
He anticipated that Yun Qingqing would be vague, stammering, or give some offhand name from a dubious university.
That way, he could take advantage of his curiosity to press on and gradually expose her past, making both her and Gu Mingyan lose face.
However, Yun Qingqing simply raised her eyes calmly: "I'm not very talented. I dropped out of high school."
Gu Xubai: "...Pfft."
Ye Jinyan: "..."
All the follow-up remarks he had prepared got stuck in his throat.
He didn't expect the other party to so readily expose their weaknesses without any hesitation, leaving him speechless and unsure how to respond.
"Dropped out of high school?" Yu Ran repeated in surprise, her gaze towards Yun Qingqing filled with astonishment.
He clearly hadn't expected that this seemingly quiet and intelligent girl would drop out of high school.
“Yes, she dropped out of high school.” Gu Mingyan continued, giving Ye Jinyan a cold look. “But she passed the Education Bureau’s equivalent academic ability test a long time ago, and she scored over 700 points in the last joint exam of 100 schools.”
Over 700 points?!
Everyone present gaped in astonishment.
Ye Jinyan finally found an opening to interject. He chuckled, his tone filled with undisguised skepticism: "Oh? Over 700 points? That is indeed a remarkable score, but I've heard that some educational institutions lower their grading standards to make the data look better."
He slowly advised, "Miss Yun, be careful not to be fooled by these unscrupulous educational institutions."
"That's no trouble at all. Qingqing took the exam at the official examination hall of Yuncheng International High School, and the grading standards are the same for all candidates." Gu Mingyan twitched the corner of her mouth. "It's normal for Young Master Ye to find it hard to believe. After all, you probably couldn't even get half of this score back then, right?"
The moment she finished speaking, Ye Jinyan looked at her incredulously.
He seemed completely unprepared for the other party to publicly expose his shortcomings in such a sharp and barbed tone for the sake of Yun Qingqing, an outsider.
Ye Jinyan's face flushed red and then turned pale, his chest heaving with pent-up frustration.
After a busy day, night falls.
According to the program's rules, all live cameras will be turned off after 10 p.m. to give the guests a few hours of private time.
A campfire burned in the center of the camp. Gu Mingyan sat cross-legged on a flat rock, watching Yun Qingqing weave a grasshopper with a few long blades of grass.
Halfway through their cheerful conversation, a tall shadow loomed over them.
Gu Mingyan's smile faded slightly.
Yun gently raised her head and saw Ye Jinyan standing in front of them, looking at Gu Mingyan with a gloomy expression.
She subconsciously stood up and subtly moved half a step forward, blocking Gu Mingyan's path: "Young Master Ye, it's so late, is there something you need?"
Ye Jinyan's gaze swept over Yun Qingqing with an uncertain expression, finally landing on Gu Mingyan behind her: "Gu Mingyan, let's talk."
Gu Mingyan then patted the grass clippings off her hands and said to Yun Qingqing, "Qingqing, go over there and see if Gu Xubai has boiled the water yet."
Yun Qingqing looked at Ye Jinyan with worry in her eyes, then glanced at her and then at Ye Jinyan, who clearly had ill intentions, but did not move.
Gu Mingyan noticed her hesitation and reached out to pinch her slightly chubby cheek: "It's okay, go ahead."
Yun Qingqing knew she had to trust Gu Mingyan's ability to handle the problem, and after a few seconds of silence, she finally nodded.
"I'm right next door, call me if you need anything."
After watching Yun Qingqing leave, Gu Mingyan finally spared a glance for Ye Jinyan: "What did you talk about?"
Her nonchalant attitude stung Ye Jinyan.
He took a deep breath, trying to make his voice sound calm and reasonable: "Gu Mingyan, how long are you going to keep throwing a tantrum?"
Hearing this, Gu Mingyan almost burst out laughing: "How come I never noticed how shameless you are before? You're all lovey-dovey with other people on variety shows, but then you turn around and say I'm just throwing a tantrum?"
Ye Jinyan's heart skipped a beat, and he even began to feel a secret, extremely arrogant joy.
See? Gu Mingyan still cares after all.
Her previous feigned indifference was nothing more than a ploy to win him over; in the end, she was just trying to attract his attention by throwing a tantrum.
He suppressed his impatience and said, "Mingyan, I know you're upset, but you know, we're just..."
“You don’t need to explain,” Gu Mingyan interrupted him, “because nobody cares about these things anymore.”
Ye Jinyan was taken aback, and a somewhat uneasy premonition quietly arose within him.
Gu Mingyan lazily lifted her chin: "Let's break up."
For a moment, Ye Jinyan wondered if he had misheard: "What did you say?"
"What, do I have to repeat myself?" Gu Mingyan curled her lips in a mocking smile. "I'm telling you, go find someone else to act out your sentimental drama. I, Gu Mingyan, am not playing along."
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Author's Note: ===★【Next book: "The Beloved Little Sister of the Real and Fake Young Masters of a Wealthy Family," please add it to your favorites~】===
Su Qiuqiu died at the young age of three and found herself in a novel about a wealthy family with real and fake young masters.
Her third brother, Su Jingci, was a fake young master who was switched at birth. After the real young master, Su Xiaocheng, returned home, someone deliberately sowed discord between the two, causing them to fight to the death and both sides to suffer heavy losses. The entire Su family also fell apart as a result.
However, the tense standoff between the real and fake young masters suddenly took a turn for the worse after Chiu Chiu was reborn.
Chiu Chiu is a real slut; she's always begging for hugs and cuddles in her soft, sweet voice. She initially thought she'd be ignored, but before long, everyone turned into doting moms!
The cunning young master, pretending to be a rich and powerful man, would kneel on the carpet and clumsily braid Qiuqiu's hair.
The aloof and indifferent young master will sing newly learned nursery rhymes to Qiuqiu in a high-pitched voice;
Even the gloomy eldest brother and the hot-tempered second sister put on floral aprons and competed to make baby food for Qiuqiu.
The real and fake young masters are no longer competing for resources; they're just busy vying for Qiuqiu's favor.
*
If we're talking about the thing that Chinese entertainment industry haters love to talk about the most, it's undoubtedly the protracted feud between the two top stars from the Su family.
The news that the two participated in the same variety show caused an instant uproar online, with everyone waiting to see the "black lotus" and the "coffin face" tear each other apart.
As I waited and waited, I found that the trending topics were all about:
#Su Jingci and Su Xiao present a massive display of doting on their younger sister#
#Two top celebrities reconcile in an epic way to appease their sister#
#Su Jiujiu, the human cub, heals the ceiling#
Haters: ? ? ? No, is this right?
Chuchu slurped up the sweet milk candy, tilting her head as she thought:
So what if he's a real young master, or a fake one? He's still her brother, no matter what.
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